Autophagy serves a crucial role in the etiology of kidney diseases, including drug‑induced renal impairment, inherited kidney disease, diabetic nephropathy and aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN) and is, therefore, a potential target for treatment. We previously demonstrated that rapamycin could attenuate AAN in mice; however, the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. Therefore, whether the renal protective effect of rapamycin (an autophagy activator) is related to autophagy in aristolochic acid (AA)‑treated mice was of particular interest. The pathophysiological roles of rapamycin were investigated in AA‑induced nephrotoxicity in mice and the mechanisms of rapamycin action were explored by evaluating the modulation of autophagy in rapamycin‑treated mice and cultured renal tubular epithelial cells. Supplementation with rapamycin reversed AA‑induced kidney injury in mice and improved AA‑induced autophagy damage in vivo and in vitro. Mechanistically, rapamycin inhibited the renal expression of phosphorylated (p‑)mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and p‑ribosomal S6 protein kinase 1, which in turn activated renal autophagy and decreased apoptosis, probably by removing AA‑elicited damaged mitochondria and misfolded proteins. The findings of the present study demonstrated that rapamycin protects against AA‑induced nephropathy by activating the mTOR‑autophagy axis and suggested that rapamycin may be a promising pharmacological target for the treatment of AAN.
Keywords: apoptosis; aristolochic acid nephropathy; autophagy; mTOR; rapamycin.